Jos, 10 October, 2019 / 11:53 pm (ACI Africa).
The violence between the Jukun and Tiv people in Nigeria’s Taraba and Benue State, within the Ecclesiastical Provinces of Abuja and Jos, has caught the attention of Church leaders in the region, necessitating a meeting to seek solutions to stop the conflict.
“Today, divine providence has brought some of us Bishops and priests especially from the areas affected by the Jukun-Tiv crisis to brainstorm and to deliberate on how as Catholic clergy ... (we) can help to minimize or to inspire our people to completely stop the atrocities unleashed on innocent people,” the Coadjutor Archbishop of Abuja, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama said.
“It is very embarrassing and indeed disappointing that our people, most of whom profess Christianity can take up arms against one another and commit atrocities against one another on account of tribal differences or in the name of the struggle for economic or political control,” lamented the Archbishop in the October 8 meeting held at the Dialogue, Reconciliation and Peace (DREP) Centre in Jos, Middle Belt area in Nigeria.
In August, a priest heading to Takum (one of the towns experiencing the violence) for a peace meeting on how to resolve the crisis between the warring communities with fellow clergymen was killed and set ablaze in his car.
Archbishop Kaigama urged the priests present at the DREP Centre meeting, most of whom are clergy of Jos and Abuja Archdioceses, to emphasize the value of reconciliation among the people of God in their missions.
